last year, when our family was looking forward to meeting our little junebug, i made arrangements for a surprise baby shower for my sister. of course, being an ocean apart, i needed some support from my mom and a close friend.

it was going to be easier for me if they would plan certain things, as for example the buffet, locally. but as far as the decoration went, i tried to take over as much as possible. after all, i did want to be the person officially "throwing" the party for sylvia since due to logistics i wasn't able to do that neither for my sister's wedding nor for her first baby shower. for these occasions, yes, i was a bit involved, but really not nearly as much as i wanted to be.

the easiest decision for the baby girl shower was the color scheme:

YELLOW & WHITE with a dash of GREEN

knowing my sister, and wanting it to be the way she'd love it the most, this party was not to be a generic baby girl shower with baby bottles, diapers, and rattles all over the place. and pink is not at all my sister's favorite color. also, this was the second baby, and junebug was going to have been born by the time i was to come and visit and throw the party. this celebration was definitely going to be in honor of ournew, tiny addition to the family.but after all it was a celebration of being together, being complete as a family, and having our closest friends there with us to enjoy this time.

to make it a surprise, all we told my sister was that we'd have a simple family get-together, and since we wanted to take family pictures, the dress code was to be white, yellow & green. we only told her about the dress code a few days before to make it look like a spontaneous idea. that way she wouldn't get wind of the get-together being a big deal.

when sylvia and the family arrived, the house was decorated and we had loads of presents for our little junebug. and there were many more people invited than she had expected.

our mom had cut fresh bright yellow flowers in the garden, and they were put into small green vases. the tables were decorated with yellow tablecloth, green place mats, white crochet flowers, candles that matched the color scheme, and white dishes. i had also found some cute pinwheels that were yellow with white dots, we ended up sticking them into the flowerpots on the window sill.

as for the party favors, i had made beaded necklace leaf pendants for all women invited. naturally, they were made with the party colors, white and yellow. unfortunately i forgot to take a picture of the leaves in their packaging before i gave them all away.

the second party favor was an idea borrowed from the last baby boy shower planning i was involved in. that other shower was with the colors blue, green, and brown. you can head over to visit that post here.

but for junebug's baby shower we got ribbon mainly in yellow, with some white and a hint of green since green was the accent color of this party. the ribbons were tied into bows around cd-sleeves containing delicious lemon cookies baked by mom. i also drew simple little butterflies and dragonflies onto the cd-sleeves to pretty them up a bit.

did you see these cute yellow butterflies? and do you like the paper lanterns?
next week i'll go more into detail of how i went about making these. but for now, here's an overview of what i did and learned when preparing for the yellow and white baby shower, and these tips of course would also work for a wedding or any other party occasion:

how we implemented the color theme:

::: SUMMARY and TIPS :::

• dress code:
ask the guests to wear certain colors. but don't expect everybody to go out of their way to dress up or even purchase new clothes, not everybody is such a good sport. to make it easier for the guests to comply, make sure you include a generic color that anybody should have in their closet, such as white, black, or blue (jeans).

• invitations and thank you notes:
especially when having a dress code, set the theme with invitations using the party color scheme.

• table cloth and dishes:
don't underestimate how these two make a difference to the overall appearance. you can always use a white tablecloth to highlight the decoration on it, and you can even paint the white cloth with your party colors (a border, dots, etc.). try not to get away with dishes that really don't help the overall look, but consider borrowing some plain dishes from a friend if you want to avoid using paper or plastic plates and cups.

• fresh flowers:
these are a gorgeous addition to any table decoration. either as little accents, or even as main center piece.

• the buffet: think of what foods can emphasize the color scheme. plan how dishes and food decoration accentuate the colors, and if you have others bring some, make sure they are aware of how important the colors are to you and the overall look of the celebration decor.

• party favors:
if the favors themselves do not match the color scheme, package or decorate them to match, and place them in a pretty container or basket.

• wall and ceiling decoration:
buntings, poms, lanterns. if you buy these at a party supplies store and they don't have your colors in stock, don't cut corners! instead, buy the white version (you'll find all the white decor in the wedding section) and add the party colors to it later.